Teachers: Submit your New Year’s Resolutions

The new year is almost here, and we want to hear your best teacher resolutions. Think you have a good one? WeAreTeachers is putting together a cool compilation video with teacher’s resolutions—and we want YOU to be a part of it!

It’s simple. Use your computer or smartphone to record a quick 30-second video of yourself and send it to us. We’ll choose some of our favorites to feature in a video on WeAreTeachers.com early next year and each of those lucky teachers will be sent a $100 Amazon gift card. Sound fun? All the details are below. We can’t wait to hear what you have to say.

Deadline: Footage must be uploaded by 11 p.m. EST on December 26, 2016.

Some tips to make recording easier:

Be sure to find a place to record without distractions. This includes:

A quiet place to record yourself so that your beautiful voice isn’t battling with rackety background noise.

A place that doesn’t echo or has weird, random noises.

A place with good overhead lighting, but be careful of too much (or too little) light/sun when filming yourself so your face can be out there for the world to be seen.

Pick a place to record that you think makes for a pleasant background shot.

Dress comfortably and in your normal fashion style when picking an outfit, but try to wear monochrome clothing and avoid anything with graphics or logos. Hats, glasses (not sunglasses), jewelry (as long as it won’t create a glare) are definitely allowed!

When choosing what device to record yourself with, we have some recommendations for using them:

Smartphone/tablet – Try to set up your device so that it is recording horizontally. It is also definitely best to not have the device itself moving around (although you certainly can), so propping it up somewhere will turn out better than holding with your hand.

Laptop/computer – Make sure it is on a level, stable surface (aka not your lap).

Camera/camcorder – Avoid using these if possible; the file sizes from these devices can be very large and hard to transfer/send. If you do use these, make sure they are on a level, stable surface.

When recording with any device, try to record yourself at eye-level or slightly above to avoid adding extra chins you don’t have as well as to avoid staring up into your nostrils.

Try to record yourself from about 2-3 feet away. If you’re too close, it can be unflattering as well as cut off part of your head/face; if you’re too far away, it can obviously make for some blurry footage.

Speak loudly and clearly; use your teacher voice!

Give yourself about 3-5 seconds after hitting “record” to begin speaking. After you’re done answering, wait another 3-5 seconds to stop recording. This makes editing the videos cleaner, and it also prevents audio cut-offs as well as footage of you reaching for the “record” button.

Do test recordings until you are happy with how YOU look in it. We can alter lights and colors and edit audio somewhat, but we can’t edit unflattering angles!

Have fun with it and be yourself! Thanks teachers!

Posted by Danielle N. Barr

Danielle Barr is the Director of Social Strategy at WeAreTeachers. She's a writer, reader & dog-lover who spends her free time renovating her 1920s bungalow.